Friday, April 19, 2013

Hungry Horse!

... or, in other words, Great West Invitational 2013!

... or, as it has been called, "Canada," which it wasn't this year, but anyway.

For all you Bible Quizzers out there, here is the long-awaited Great West post, complete with a list of the funniest quotes from the trip. Please forgive my apparent lack of documentation of one of the best weekends ever. Someone (I'm not sure who) replaced my lovely 4 gig camera card with my little brother's cheap, barely-lets-you-take-anything card. So, after taking about 20 photos, my camera quit on me and informed me that my memory card was full. So anything you see here is a combination of my few photos, the couple I took on my ipod, and my dad's photo skills on his iphone.

Note: the pictures may likely have nothing whatsoever to do with the text around them, aside from the fact that the photos all came from the same trip.

The "senior" guys (even though they graduated last year)

... See what I mean?

For those of you who didn't experience the wonders of Hungry Horse with us, I will explain a little about our trip.

So... every year our Bible Quizzing district takes the top 20 individuals to Canada for an invitational meet where we compete with the top quizzers from 2 Canadian districts. Until this year. Yes, this year, PNW at last hosted Great West, in a lovely camp up in the mountains of Montana. It was an AMAZING camp. But if you've heard much about my experiences with Great West facilities, you'd know how little can make me happy. (In past years, we've had plywood walls, concrete floors, quizzing in front of a huge hot water heater, you get the picture.) Not that I'm complaining about the other years, but in comparison, this camp was really nice. It's two top qualities were:

a. We had bathrooms in the same building as our rooms! Hallelujah! No more walking through the snow in pajamas just to brush your teeth. This was a big one.

b. We got ice cream at just about every meal. Yep, the camp had a soft serve machine, and they won us over by serving ice cream with lunch, dinner, and a snack after dinner. Both days. My brother is already planning his trip to that camp.

The cafeteria area

In the morning on the first day we were at the camp, we went to go on a "hike" at a park nearby. Now, I won't deny that it was beautiful. It was really a gorgeous day.

Yeah, they thought it would be fun to put all of us kids on one side of the dock and watch it sink into the water. (It really did start to sink)

But the term hike seems a little well, inadequate, since in my experience, a hike assumes you have a trail to hike on. About half way through the hike, we were informed that it was too difficult to go along by the coast of the lake as we had been, and that inland the way would be easier. Sure...pushing through trees and undergrowth, not to mention sticker bushes, is easier. But hey, we made some fun memories and some awesome quotes, as you will see below.

In addition, I felt like we were actually able to get to know the Canadians this year. In past years, we've driven a really long way, so we always arrive late and leave early. But since we were hosting, we got to be the first ones there and the last ones to leave. We also got to participate in games and a bonfire with the other quizzers. I think the last two items brought us together more than anything.

For our game, we played zorks. No, I hadn't heard of it either. The way it works is that all the quizzers are on a gigantic scavenger hunt to find a key (also known as a spatula). Meanwhile, all the adults were aliens (zorks) who were trying to capture us and send us to jail. I'm not going to lie, some of them were pretty scary. ( Like the guy who wore boxers on his face as a mask. Uhh... still makes me shudder.) The best part about the game though, was that it made all of us work together. Automatically, anyone who wasn't an adult was your new best friend. There were some people I met and worked with during the game, and then got to talk to them in the morning.

And what's better than worship songs, camp songs, and showtunes around a bonfire in the snow? Really, how does it get any better than that?

Okay, I promised it was coming. Drum roll please.....

Here is my quote book from GWI 2013. I did my best to capture all the moments I was there for, along with the ones I heard about second hand from eyewitnesses. To those who weren't on the trip, I apologize in advance if these don't make any sense to you, because if I spend a whole paragraph trying to explain, they just wouldn't be funny anymore.

For privacy reasons, I will refer to all people by their first names, including chaperones.

If anyone sees this and would like their name removed, just let me know.

Random Quotes

"You don't look like Jon, you just look like a big red blob." — Molly, while trying on Emma's glasses

"Look, that girl is wearing minecraft pajamas!"—Claire

"No, that's an army uniform." — Daniel

"They were running and giggling and I wanted to come along." — Jon

"This is my new phone. It used to be my grandma's. All my contacts are relatives, except for one teriyaki place." — Bryce

"Look at this gorgeous scenery!" — Melodee

"Whoa, look at that huge power plant!" — Joe

"Scott, you look like a cow." — Anna

In the all PNW quiz,

"We're all brethren here." —Jeremy

"So that means Canadians aren't brethren?" — Jon

"Don't quote me out of context." — Jeremy

"... And then the underwear-face guy jumped out and got me!" — Claire, describing her Zorks experience

Ryan, in reference to his shorts: "I don't have any pants longer than these."
Scott: "Then you don't have pants."

"Everyone focus on Scott's beautiful mouth." — Emma

"Ew! Was that your nose?" —Anna

"We've been over this, Anna. I promise it's clean." —Bryce

Bonus points if you can find the two people photo bombing this picture

When Bryce was pretending to force choke Anna (you know, like Darth Vader), a very confused CMD quizzer said,

"Are you trying to propose to her or something?"

"Shamus, we need you to come tackle Anna!" — Bryce

"Yes, I like you Bryce, especially when you wear deodorant." — Tim

"So in the top ten we had 6 PNW quizzers, 2 West Can, and 2 Canadian Mounties." — Bryce

"Oh my goodness, Abby, look at that snowfall. It is so pretty. It looks like one of those Narnian landscapes. Who can survive those Narnian landscapes anyway?" — Bryce, Josh, and Hannah

Oh, I guess I should mention the actual quizzing. PNW was simply stellar. We had 4 out of our 5 teams in top nine! We composed almost half the semifinal competition! My team even made it to finals, and got third after barely being edged out on question 20!

6 out of the top 10 quizzers were from PNW.

All in all, it was an amazing weekend.

PS. In case you were wondering, Bryce wins the award for being a part of the most quotes, coming in at a grand total of 9!

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About Me

Hey there! Nice to meet you. I am Abby. More than that, I am a follower of Jesus Christ. He is my everything, and he shows me more and more of who he is each day. Here in my corner of the blogosphere, I strive to celebrate the beauty of life, by sharing the big and little works of God I see everyday. My hope is that by sharing what He is doing in my life, God will use my words to encourage you in your journey. Please join me in spreading the joy that comes from living to further His kingdom!

Ephesians 3:20-21

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Jesus Christ, throughout all generations, forever and ever, amen!